Henrique Capriles: ‘Pragmatism is winning’

Sep 1, 2013

Despite two electoral defeats, Venezuela’s opposition leader Henrique Capriles is still positioning himself as the face of pragmatic politics in Latin America

By Girish Gupta

At his campaign headquarters in the Caracas district of Bello
Monte, Henrique Capriles finishes off his weekly TV show "We
are all Venezuela" surrounded by a staff less invigorated than
it was 18 months ago.

The mood has darkened in the wake of Capriles’
two major election defeats – by Hugo Chávez in
October 2012 and by his successor Nicolás Maduro the
following April – and the numerous hurdles which have
been placed ahead of him.

And Capriles’ show has been forced to broadcast
online after the country’s last remaining
"opposition" television station abruptly took a more
pro-government line instead and stopped airing it.

Yet, the 41-year-old Capriles remains defiantly optimistic.
"Venezuela is destined for change. Venezuela is going to
change," he tells LatinFinance, as aides clear up camera
equipment around him.

When Capriles lost to Chávez, his 44% share of the
votes was nevertheless hugely significant for a disparate
opposition which had struggled to unite during nearly a decade
and a half of self-styled Bolivarian socialism.

Capriles had been keen to adopt the mantle of the new face
of Latin American pragmatism, casting himself in the mold of
former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. "I
100% follow the model of Lula," he said before opposition
primaries in February 2012. Lula, however, endorsed
Chávez and then Maduro in subsequent elections.

A year and a half of election defeats and countless battles
later, Capriles is more measured on his role as a Venezuelan
Lula.

"We must keep revising our model," he says. "Fundamentally,
I believe in the progressive model in which public and private
sectors work together." He favors market-friendly economic
policies with income redistribution, but has been guarded on
the details of his policy prescriptions, in the hope of not
alienating disillusioned Chavistas.

Regional shifts

Pragmatic leaders are emerging across the region –
from Peru’s Ollanta Humala to
Uruguay’s José Mujica. Humala lost the 2006
presidential election having campaigned in a red T-shirt and
spouted anti-capitalist rhetoric, happy to trumpet his
friendship with Chávez. In elections five years later,
Humala shied away from Venezuela’s former
president and smartened up in a shirt and tie – and
won.

Capriles, though, notes that Venezuela remains economically
vulnerable to the political status quo. "In Latin America,
politics can end up dragging the economy with it," says
Capriles.

He cites Ecuador as an example. "Economically, Ecuador is
fine. Now if president Rafael Correa tries to make his project
a hegemonic one, controlling the institutions, controlling the
media, controlling the parties and power, you’re
going to see that politics will end up dragging the economy
down too because there is corruption; there are abuses." These,
Capriles says, "close the window to democracy," both in
Venezuela, Ecuador and across the region.

"The challenge is how economics and politics work together
democratically," says Capriles.

Capriles lost his appeal to Venezuela’s Supreme
Court over the results of the last election. Maduro won by less
than 250,000 votes, according to the National Electoral
Council, though the opposition cried foul. Capriles was ordered
to pay a fine of 10,000 bolívares ($1,700) for insulting
the government and questioning the legitimacy of the court.
That same day, his chief of staff Óscar López was
arrested in what government critics see as evidence of
political oppression. Maduro said that authorities had captured
"a chief of corruption and of the mafia of the Venezuelan
right."

Yet, Capriles takes such developments in his stride,
insisting he wants to proceed in a "legitimate" manner, that
is, within the rule of law and with respect from the
international community.

Ultimately, though, Capriles says "the question of whether
the change happens tomorrow or not, I don’t know
because there are several scenarios." These include a recall
referendum, which can take place in three years, three
years’ short of the presidential term limit.

Maduro lacks Chávez’s popularity and
relies heavily on the momentum of his late predecessor. Local
polls show that Capriles could win against Maduro if elections
were held today, although no such poll is likely. But with
annual inflation at 42.6%, a soaring crime rate and mounting
shortages of basic goods, Maduro faces formidable
challenges.

This stretches into Maduro’s own socialist
party where rumors abound of a challenge to his leadership.
Such talk was fuelled by leaked tapes, which revealed a lack of
unity within the government – problems not apparent
under Chávez.

Capriles’ strength, not shared by many in the
opposition that he leads, has always been in his ability, at
least ostensibly, to relate to the poor. Despite his wealthy
background – his family owns a chain of cinemas
– Capriles would often ride into slums on his
motorbike and play basketball with the locals during the
campaigns.

It worked – almost. Before April’s
election, many in Chávez strongholds said that while
they were staunch Chavistas, and always would be, they would
vote for Capriles this time.

Nevertheless, the majority of Chávez-supporters
obeyed the final public request of the ailing president, who
beseeched the nation before his final cancer operation that
should anything go wrong, they should vote for Maduro.

Chávez, of course, was the master of public relations
when it came to the poor, but was less concerned with his
international standing. Capriles, however, has spent the months
since his last narrow election defeat shoring up his ties
across the region – in some cases to the detriment of
foreign relations.

International platform

"We are taking the voice of millions of Venezuelans beyond
our borders," Capriles announced in Bogotá, before
meeting Colombia’s president Juan Manuel
Santos.

His message looks to be getting through, although regional
leaders will be careful not to offend Venezuela, which, with
the world’s largest oil reserves remains powerful
if not as an ally, at least not as an enemy.

Authorities in Venezuela reacted with fury to
Capriles’ meeting with Santos. Diosdado Cabello,
head of the National Assembly, accused Santos of "placing a
bomb" under the countries’ much-improved relations
in recent years – and advance that was partly due to
Maduro’s efforts as foreign minister.

The would-be leader also met Chile’s president
Sebastián Piñera, though Peru’s
Humala declined such a meeting. Capriles, though, insists that
governments across the region are alive to his concerns over
democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela.

"I think more important than what they said was that they
listened to our approach," he says. "In Latin America these
hegemonic projects of undefined elections, constitutions that
are tailored to the government in power and so on are very
negative."

That is the message that Capriles is hoping to spread around
the region. "That’s what I told Santos.
That’s what I told Piñera," he says.
"That’s what I’m going to tell other
institutions with which we are meeting. We have to raise the
banner of democracy and change in Latin America."

Nevertheless, Capriles insists that politically, the region
is heading in the right direction. "Pragmatism is winning right
now in Latin America," he says. LF

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